Education

Areas of Expertise

I am an evolutionary ecologist with a keen interest in energetics – that is, understanding how animals acquire and use energy to cope with changes in their environment over ecological and evolutionary time scales. I’ve studied birds and fish all over the world but most recently was working in Scotland where I was studying the energetics of juvenile salmon in small mountain streams. This work was part of a fun collaborative project aimed at understanding whether and how salmon help their offspring by dying on the spawning grounds.

This year, I am teaching two really interesting courses at Williams College – Conservation Biology (F) and Global Change Ecology (S). I will also be conducting lab research on small fishes to better understand how their metabolic rates are influenced not just by food availability but also food quality. Email me if you’re interested in gaining research experience – from basic fish care to more intricate measurements of fish energy metabolism.

Awards, Fellowships & Grants

Society for Experimental Biology President’s Medal Runner Up 2018

Lister Bellahouston Traveling Fellowship for international collaboration, “The pace of life in Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata): Do changes in organ mass and energy metabolism facilitate shifts in life history traits?” (2016) UK £1,000.

University of California Dissertation Year Fellowship (2010), US $11,800.

University of California Chancellor’s Fellowship (2010), US $8,500.

University of California Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellowship (2009), US $25,600.

US National Science Foundation and Research Council of Norway Nordic Research Opportunity Award, “How are adult life history decisions impacted by early environmental conditions? A state-dependent modeling approach” (2009), US $22,600.

University of California Dean’s Dissertation Research Award (2009), US $1,000.

University of California-Riverside Newell Award, US $1,000.

US National Science Foundation Travel Award (2008), US $1,000.

US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2006), US $121,500.

US Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need Fellowship (2005), US $37,890.

US National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates, “Effects of nest site selection and parental activity on the nest predation rates of songbirds” (2001) US $4,500.

Professional Affiliations

British Ecological Society

American Society of Naturalists

Society for Experimental Biology

Research Interests

Many organisms live in variable environments where they face food limitation, predation, and disease. How do animals cope with and adapt to these environmental challenges? This question is of critical importance given current climate change and other human-induced environmental perturbations. As such, it forms the basis for most of my research. To understand the relationship between species and their environment, I take an integrative approach that considers the organism as a whole, investigating how its physiology, behavior, life history traits, ecological interactions, and evolutionary history determine how it responds when the environment changes. I employ question-driven observational, experimental, and comparative studies in the field and laboratory. The broad emphasis of my research – from cellular to macroevolutionary patterns – means that I draw on an array of research tools including energetic, behavioral, geographic, and phylogenetic methods.